Action Performance a No-Show at Investment Conference

InAction: Yesterday's 9% decline in the shares of Action Performance (ACTN) caused my assistant, Mark Martinez, to start sniffing around. The more he sniffed, the worse it smelled. What he learned was that Action and its goracing.com unit were supposed to make presentations last Tuesday at the Ryan Beck Motorsports Conference. They never showed, only leaving word of the cancellation -- with no explanation -- in a voice mail to Ryan Beck.

Ryan Beck analyst Dennis McAlpine, who has no recommendation on Action, says Action had given every indication that it would be attending the conference until it cancelled.

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One explanation for Action's absence could be that its goracing.com subsidiary is in registration to go public. But it's been in registration for five months, and the offering is long overdue. What's more, it was in registration when it made a presentation back in September at a Banc of America Securities investment conference.

Of course, it was at that conference that Action made statements that ended up backfiring, and now it's the target of two class-action lawsuits.

Officials at Action couldn't be reached, but this much we know: In general, it isn't a good sign when companies suddenly cancel out of investment conferences.

SFX follies: An *Extra* edition of this column yesterday skewered SFX Entertainment's (SFX) underwriters, Bear Stearns, for coming in after non-underwriter Goldman Sachs in lowering estimates for the company over Y2K concerns. That prompted Bear Stearns analyst Marina Jacobson to chide me in a phone call for not noticing that her report actually came out before Goldman's report. Or so she says: She wouldn't send us a time-stamped copy, but she says it came out on First Call at 7:29 a.m. EST, and we'll take her word for it; Goldman's didn't cross on First Call until 7:45 a.m.

To which I say: Sorry, and good for Bear Stearns for showing just how separate its research and investment banking departments apparently are. (Not enough of that these days.)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch: SFX's stock tumbled 19% on the analysts' actions. SFX responded by issuing a press release saying that it was "surprised and concerned at what it believes is an overreaction in the marketplace." The company also said that despite analysts' forecasts, it expects a strong fourth quarter. And get this: SFX said that while it "continues to try to be helpful and informative to all investors," it is also "in full agreement with the recent criticism of companies micromanaging to precise achievement of analysts' estimates." SFX may not be micromanaging analysts' estimates, but it does appear to be trying to micromanage its stock, no? (Quite frankly, I don't know what the company was really trying say in its convoluted statement. Maybe instead of hiring entertainers, the company should hire a few writers.)

SFX's CFO didn't return my call.

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